Atlas of Miniature Adventures

Atlas of Miniature Adventures by Emily Hawkins, illustrated by Lucy Letherland (Quarto Children’s Books) HB RRP $14.99 ISBN 9781847809094

Reviewed by Daniela Andrews

‘Big things get a lot of attention’ …

… So this pocket-sized reference book instead sets out to celebrate the ‘mini marvels’ around the world. It features tiny animals and plants, tiny model villages, tiny toys and tiny countries.

The information is presented by continent. Each section opens with a double page, highly illustrative map, featuring small icons to depict the locations of the small wonders unique to the region. The icons are accompanied with some brief, explanatory text. There is a small inset showing the continent’s location on a world globe. Some selected small-scale wonders on the map are presented in more detail in the pages that follow. (Curious readers will no doubt go away and research the others!)

There is an interesting selection of miniature marvels presented in extra detail, such as Berlin’s glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course, South Korea’s tiny teddy bears, San Francisco’s itty-bitty postal service and Australia’s desert goby fish. These double-page spreads always feature two insets – one showing a map with the item location, and another with either a fun fact about the item, or a useful illustration to show the item’s scale.

The book closes with a fun ‘Can You Find?’ section, featuring miniature picture cut-outs and prompting readers to go back through the book to spot them.

Lucy Letherland’s coloured ink, detailed illustrations in this book are fantastic – there is so much to look at on every page. (Even the endpapers are a feast for the eyes!) This is a great educational book for readers aged 7 and up.